


Gone Fishing

by Koraki



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29368413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koraki/pseuds/Koraki
Summary: Crookedstar is having an overwhelming day on the tail of an overwhelming moon when his deputy approaches with an urgent request.
Relationships: Crookedjaw & Oakheart (Warriors)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Gone Fishing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katherine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/gifts).



> As requested, the brotherliness of cats!! <3 
> 
> This is a huge nostalgia fandom for me and I always thought Crookedstar was great. His Super Edition was one of the last new releases that I read, too. Even when I was in the fandom I never did get around to writing anything about him or Oakheart so this was lots of fun, and I hope you enjoy this pre- _Into the Wild_ moment between the two of them.

Leopardfur's border patrol burst into camp in a rush of confusion. "ThunderClan scent by the Sunningrocks again!" 

"And Mallowtail saw" — Petaldust had been saying, her ears twitching nervously. She broke off at the sound of Leopardfur's yowl, glancing at Leopardfur making her way across the clearing, then at Mallowtail beside her, then back at Crookedstar. "The streams by the moor, well…"

"Again!" Leopardfur spat, pressing up beside Mallowtail to occupy the rest of Crookedstar's field of vision. "After everything Bluestar said at the Gathering! Crookedstar, they were all over the Sunningrocks. I don't know what" — 

"Is this a bad time?" someone said behind them. Swiveling an ear around, Crookedstar recognized Voleclaw's voice and glanced back. "Softwing says there's a leak in the floor of the nursery again, same place as there was last moon. I thought Grasspaw and Vixenpaw were supposed to take care of that. Crookedstar, do you think" — 

"We need more patrols by the Sunningrocks," Leopardfur was saying, not hearing or else not caring about Voleclaw's nursery complaints. "That's our territory." 

"Speaking of our territory," Petaldust said, barely raising her voice, "I noticed some of the streams up by the moor looked off, and I brought Mallowtail over to look at them, and she saw it too." 

"They're drying up," Mallowtail said. "This newleaf has been warmer than usual, which is why I think" — 

"Softwing is worried the kits will catch whitecough again," Voleclaw said. "I don't blame her." 

"We need to show Bluestar and Redtail their place." Leopardfur's claws tore restlessly at the earth beneath them. 

"Mallowtail is exactly right," said Petaldust. 

"Crookedstar?" Mudfur was calling from somewhere across the clearing. 

"One moment," Crookedstar said to the Clanmates who surrounded him, trying to project the sense of directing his voice into four unique pairs of ears. 

"This is urgent," said Leopardfur. 

"You should come up to the moor to see for yourself," said Petaldust. 

"I can bring Softwing to tell you more about it," Voleclaw offered. 

Another yowl cut through the air: Oakheart's familiar voice. At the sound of Oakheart's call blending with all the others Crookedstar felt a twinge of apprehension, then annoyance with himself for the apprehension. 

The early afternoon sun glowed red on Oakheart's pelt as he crossed the clearing at a brisk trot. "I need to speak with Crookedstar." 

"Oakheart." Leopardfur dipped her head. "I was sharing with Crookedstar. The Sunningrocks" — 

"This can't wait." Eyes glimmering, Oakheart shouldered his way between Mallowtail and Leopardfur with barely a hint of force. "I need to speak with Crookedstar alone." 

Alarm leaped in Crookedstar's chest like a trout cornered in the shallows. _What is it?_ He clawed for a possible reason in his mind. It couldn't be Silverpaw — she was off on her second patrol of the day, hunting by the farm. Oakheart hadn't gone on patrol yet today — Crookedstar couldn't imagine anything amiss on the ShadowClan border in any case, not with the firm hold Raggedstar had kept on his warriors since the argument at last moon's Gathering. He cast around without finding answers, an apprentice's aimless splashing. 

"Come with me." Oakheart wound his way around Crookedstar, tail twitching. "Hurry." 

They left camp at a brisk trot, ducking under bushes and through thorny brambles, Crookedstar following his brother's lead. Oakheart darted away from the river through the beech copse, over a hill, past a stand of willows, and through a marshy meadow of whistling reeds to a dip in the landscape where a silver brook wound its way out from under a formidable tangle of wild rose bushes. 

By the time Oakheart slowed enough for both of them to push their way cautiously under the bushes, Crookedstar's breathing had grown heavy and his pelt uncomfortably warm. Newleaf had been warmer than usual, and the sun still rested high in the sky today with only a few wisps of cloud on the horizon. When he nosed his way under the bushes in Oakheart's wake, the shade they provided relieved him even as the thorns and spiny leaves scraped his nose and ears and caught in his tail. 

Further into the tangled bushes the brook ran into a deep quiet pool with a stony shore beside it, an open clearing dotted with sun and just large enough for two or three warriors to sit concealed together. Beyond the clearing the brook escaped the pool again, running out under a thickly twined curtain of leaves and buds into the bright day toward the river. 

"Finally!" Sitting back on his haunches, Oakheart sighed in relief. Through the tangle of roses, the sun glittered off the water and Oakheart's eyes in dizzying spots and shifts. "I didn't know what I had to do to get my littermate to look at me for a few heartbeats!" 

"What?" 

"You fishbrain." Oakheart cast a fondly exasperated look at Crookedstar. "Have you even eaten today?" 

"Of course I have," Crookedstar said. "I had a whole vole with Silverpaw, before the dawn patrol." Of course he'd only had the chance to steal a mouthful or two of vole in between his conversation with Beetlenose about the long overdue den reinforcements for the elders and his promises to Mudfur of an apprentice or two to help gather herbs for the expecting queens, but he was hardly starving. And Silverpaw had been more than happy to finish the vole off for him. She was a growing apprentice; she needed the energy more, anyway. 

"Her catch? I hear she's becoming quite the hunter." 

"Not the vole, but she came back from the dawn patrol with two dace." Crookedstar smoothed down his chest fur with a couple of licks, his heart swelling with warmth at the memory of the pride shining in Silverpaw's eyes as she carried her catch to the elders' den to show off. "She overperformed in her night hunting assessment the other day, too, and she can already outswim all the other apprentices." 

His own pride must have showed in his voice. Oakheart's whiskers twitched, but there was no hint of teasing in his voice when he said, "She's growing into a fine warrior." 

"I'm lucky to be here, watching her grow up." Crookedstar gazed out through the overhanging branches to the light dancing in the stream. "But every father feels that way about his kits. You didn't drag me out here to listen to me brag." 

"No, I did!" When Crookedstar looked at him, Oakheart's eyes were wide and warm with sincerity. "What else are brothers for? It's not like anybody has been giving you the time _to_ brag these days, anyway, with how busy you are. You deserve to be proud of Silverpaw. I would be, if she were my kit." 

"Are your own two not giving you enough bragging material, these days?" purred Crookedstar. "Mistyfoot and Stonefur chased that dog off the stepping-stones right after the Gathering all by themselves. I think you may have raised them too brave, but you've always been harebrained like that." 

"I think you mean _lionhearted_." Whiskers twitching again, Oakheart shook out his pelt and got to his feet. "You said it; they chased it away by themselves." 

"I can't argue with that." Crookedstar stepped forward to stand beside Oakheart on the bank of the stream. A drooping sprig of leaves and buds tickled his forehead, and he gently shook it out of the way. "So. What is this really about?" 

"Mm…" Oakheart tilted his head back, eyes half closed, and raked Crookedstar with a keen solemn gaze, the sun-bright glint in his eyes saying that he was going to be joking. "Well… a very serious matter, one requiring both of our attentions, as the leader and deputy of RiverClan. Look around you. Haven't you noticed?" He lowered his voice to the hushed murmur he spoke to their warriors in before a battle. "This is the perfect spot for frog hunting." 

The breath chuffed out of Crookedstar in surprise. " _Frog…_ " 

Oakheart's eyes were dancing with amusement now. "I used to bring Mistyfoot and Stonefur here all the time, when they were apprentices. See that little pool over there? They lay their eggs there, and then the adults swim up to those rocks to sit in the sun" — 

In fact, a frog was sitting there now, camouflaged so perfectly against the brown pebbles by its dappled skin that Crookedstar had failed to see it until Oakheart pointed it out. 

"— there's one now," Oakheart added, nodding to the frog. "And I think sometimes when everyone is clamoring for his attention, and he's so determined to carry everything at once that he batters himself to pieces faster than a branch in the rapids, our noble leader could give himself a moment to catch a frog or two with his brother and take a few deep breaths, for StarClan's sake. You've looked all bunched up this past moon. You should see yourself. It's worse than Voleclaw with a thorn in his nest." 

"It's my duty," Crookedstar said absentmindedly. His focus rested on the frog where it sat perfectly still at the water's edge. "It's not too difficult. There have been busier moons." Without thinking he sank into a hunter's crouch. The movement felt almost foreign to him; he hadn't led a hunting patrol since before the Gathering. 

"Drop your tail," Oakheart said almost immediately, confirming the feeling of wrongness. Crookedstar dropped his tail. "I know it's your duty, but it's your duty to take care of yourself too, isn't it? If you run yourself ragged and get sick, where does that leave me? You know Leopardfur isn't going to come to _me_ with her Sunningrocks complaints."

"And whose fault is that," murmured Crookedstar. Attention fully occupied by the frog, he slunk forward a couple of paces, trying not to let his paws land in the shallows. 

"Loosen your shoulders," Oakheart said. 

Waggling his haunches, Crookedstar pounced. He splashed down in the quiet little pool, wet to his belly fur, paws empty. 

"I said _loosen_ your shoulders," Oakheart complained, "not tense up all over like a fresh apprentice with his mentor watching." He darted forward to the edge of the water and splashed his own forepaws in, drenching Crookedstar. "Does that help?" 

With a sneeze of surprise Crookedstar leaped back, shaking water droplets from his eyes and ears as the cold soaked into his fur. "You're a terrible mentor, then!" he choked out through a purr. "I don't know how Loudbelly survived you." 

"I don't know how _I'm_ going to survive _you_ ," Oakheart said with mock scorn, "thrashing around my nice pool like an eel and frightening away all our frogs." 

"Frogs come second to revenge!" said Crookedstar, and tackled Oakheart into the brook. 


End file.
